GitHub is reaching out to developers with the formation of a program encouraging them to link to the popular code-sharing site.
The GitHub Developer Program offers resources to work with the GitHub API, which includes features like project management, authentication, and the triggering of code-testing when committing code to GitHub. "Really, almost anything you can do on GitHub, we open up an API for it," said Ryan Day, head of business development at the company.
The program, arriving on the heels of GitHub's offer of bounties to researchers who can find vulnerabilities in its products, is open to developers with a paid GitHub account and who are developing or have developed an integration with GitHub. Sign-up for the program is atGitHub's developer site, and participating developers will receive notifications about changes to the API, as well as early access to select feature releases. They also can request a development license for GitHub Enterprise, the behind-the-firewall version of GitHub.
"Over time, the API we've offered has evolved -- adding increased flexibility and more capabilities and endpoints. Launching the developer program today represents the next chapter in this story," GitHub said in a draft blog post.
One API endpoint in preview mode right now is a deployment API, which takes a Web application developers are collaborating on in GitHub and deploys it to a production environment, such as Amazon Web Services.
The company also is unveiling GitHub Integrations, a program to help GitHub users better understand what integrations are available between GitHub and other services. It will be a microsite within GitHub.com showcasing popular GitHub integrations. "Today there are thousands of applications and services that work with GitHub," GitHub said in a draft blog post on this program. "Tools like Asana help you and your team stay on top of recent code changes by linking GitHub commits and issues to relevant project tasks. Services like CircleCI and Code Climate integrate with GitHub to test the quality of your code."